Microsoft's New Platform Takes Video Conferencing Into VR Mode

Microsoft is on its way to make VR and AR a reality for enterprises and consumers, where  simple conference video zoom calls are no longer sufficient for their appetite.

At the annual Microsoft conference, the company unveiled a new platform called Microsoft Mesh  that is designed to simulate virtual environments where users can interact with each other with compatible VR and AR headsets as if they are in the same location or room.

Microsoft show cased a demo experience using that Microsoft calls "holoportation" of a realistic avatar to interact with various components of the application.

This enables someone to be present with people even in when you are not physically together, and sharing content and information via different mixed reality devices.

The concept behind Microsoft Mesh is to enable companies to produce virtual environments where people like engineers can meet virtually to collaborate on 3D engineering projects. The software is advanced enough to enable participants to pass virtual 3D objects to each other, as if they truly exist in reality.

End-users such as architects and building designers can use the platform to produce and walk through holographic version of the building blueprints to get a immersive feel of how it would appear when finished. Medical students is able to practice their skills through virtual hands-on simulations to get better understanding of their practices.

The tech giant has been working on augmented reality for the past few years. The hololens was the first generation device designed to enable users to interact with virtual holographic objects.

“This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning,” Alex Kipman, a Microsoft technical fellow working on the project, explained at the demonstration. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content. Or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together.”

Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR social network back in 2017. The Mesh will present people as virtual avatars taken from Altspace, but will eventually support teleporting people to appear as themselves in VR.

However, the latest Hololens is not your average consumer mixed reality device. It is designed for large corporations and university with funding to take this technology to their organizations. Of course, if you have $3,500 of spare cash sitting around, this might be a different case.

Aside from Microsoft Mesh, the company is also working on a consumer version platform. The company has partnered with Niantic, developer of the "Pokemon Go" to show off how gamers can utilize Mesh to play games with multiple people at once in the virtual world. Microsoft also recruited James Cameron and co-founder of Cirque du Solei to demonstrate Mesh during Ignite keynote.

Microsoft is not the only company with ambition to dominate the VR meeting space. Facebook owned Oculus has it's own platform Spatial that allows users to interact with other users via avatars.